As a symptom of being back in my small, mostly conservative hometown for a few weeks, I've often found myself driving behind cars decorated with all sorts of political bumper stickers. Today I encountered the same sticker twice on two separate cars and the blatant misrepresentation of a sensitive issue irritated me just enough to write about it.
I suppose I should specify exactly what the sticker said: ""I've noticed that everybody that is for abortion has already been born."-Ronald Reagan."
Okay, I'm going to use all-caps here because I want this to be as clear as possible: NO ONE IS FOR ABORTION. No one thinks abortion is a great asset to our society; no one loves the idea of purposely ending the life of an unborn baby; and no one would ever encourage more abortions. The pro-choice movement doesn't support abortion, it supports a woman's right to make a very personal, private, life-altering decision without the intervention of a detached, dispassionate state.
Abortion is an extremely sensitive issue, one that requires education, civil discussion, and holistic solutions aimed at reducing the number of abortions by providing support for less affluent pregnant women and their families. Making abortion illegal is not the answer. I mean, people didn't stop downloading songs on file-sharing websites because it's illegal, they instead started using riskier programs with the potential to damage their computers, just as people won't stop having abortions. It will just become a highly risky, dangerous practice if made illegal.
So before this hyperbolic, inflammatory diction penetrates our civil discourse any further, let's remember that we all have the same ends-reducing abortion practices. Where we differ is our means. And this discourse of intentional misperception and unwillingness to address the problem without partisan rhetoric only drives the wedge further between us.
But that's just what I think.
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